Fibre Channel is the preeminent technology used for storage networking, as it can provide native support for SCSI (small computer system interface) operations and large data transfers, and also defines a lossless fabric as its transmission medium. Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), as generally defined by the INCITS T11 FC-BB-5 standard, allows Fibre Channel frames to be carried inside Ethernet frames. In this manner, SCSI can be mapped into native Fibre Channel frames, which can then be encapsulated in Ethernet frames over an Ethernet network, enhanced with certain provisions in order to ensure the same lossless characteristics of a Fibre Channel fabric.
Currently, FCoE is implemented using what are referred to as FCoE “cones,” where in order for FCoE devices (initiators and targets) to communicate with each other over the Ethernet network, the FCoE frames must traverse an intermediate Fibre Channel switching function or FCoE Forwarder (FCF). In particular, the FCFs contain the control plane, management plane, and data plane responsible for providing FCoE functionality among FCoE devices. Accordingly, there are currently no “short cuts” allowed between FCoE devices over an Ethernet network that bypass the FCF. For this reason in certain configurations the FCFs may become a poorly scalable bottleneck in the FCoE architecture.